SVCD playback problems on several DVD players

[Rise]

I made a SVCD with TMPGEnc 2.50 (standard SVCD template CBR) and burned it with Nero 5.5.6.4.

When I tried to play it with DVD player the result was as follows:
Pioneer 444 -> didn't play at all
Philips 622 -> played but every time when there were motion the video was very jerky and far from smooth
Grundig 5100 -> same thing as Philips.

I converted my avi (captured with Pinnacle DC10+ from analog video source) in several parts. After conversion I noticed that when using larger file than 2 GB with TMPGEnc the audio will be lost after 2 mins ans 5 secs. To avoid re-conversion I multiplexed the mpg and replaced the audio from the original avi file (coverted it to mp2 with SMX). After conversion I merged the five mpg files with TMPGEnc to make it as one file.
I'm using TDK 700Mb CD-Rs.

Can anybody help? Is Pioneer 444 really no good for SVCD as I have read in this forum or maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[RoopeT]

After conversion I merged the five mpg files with TMPGEnc to make it as one file.

Merging 5 SVCD compatible mpgs gives you one mpg, which isn't SVCD compatible. You have to demultiplex (TMPGEnc mpeg tools) and then re-multiplex as SVCD with BBMpg. However, I don't think the problem lies here.

Getting it to play on Pioneer 444: try burning with VCDEasy, if it doesn't work try again with "use mpgav instead of mpg2 folder" option checked. In both cases, check "add empty segment dir", just to be sure.

played but every time when there were motion the video was very jerky and far from smooth

You really won't get excellent SVCD quality from analog captures. You might want to reduce resolution to 352x480/576 and/or increase bitrate, ending up with an non-standard SVCD which might play on your player.
Also, some VirtualDub filters to remove noise from your source could make it a lot more compressable.

[Rise]

Roope T,

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit lost now. Why isn't the merged .mpg file SVCD compatible if I do the multiplexing with TMPGEnc's SVCD option?

The jerky video means that when there are moving parts on the video, it moves like in steps and has blocks (like there would be field order problem), but still parts are excellent.

I need to try the VCDEasy to see how it works.

[Igot2blues]

There is no problem with the pioneer DV-444!
If using TMPGenc use the 2.51 version with the standard templates of the 2.51+.
2.51 version is the first one that encodes properly video and audio (multiplexing) for my DV-444 (no more stuttering sound).
I capture/edit from my DV cam with Pinnacle S7, i save my project in AVI mini dv format.
I encode with TMPGenc CBR,CQ,VBR to VBR 1020 (peak bitrate from 300 to 3000) with a good result!
Then i use Pinnacle express to burn the disk and design the menu.

[RoopeT]

Why isn't the merged .mpg file SVCD compatible if I do the multiplexing with TMPGEnc's SVCD option

?

First of all, TMPGEnc produces SVCD streams according to the chinese specs. If I burn an SVCD from TMPGEnc produced mpg, I cannot use time search on my player (Philips). If I remux the mpg with bbmpg, time search works.

I can't explain why the merged mpg isn't SVCD compatible, but I have seen many post claiming this happens. I'm not sure of this at all (haven't tested it myself), and it might be fixed in current versions.

like there would be field order problem

That's also possible and worth to check out. Try the effect of burning speed too (if you're using something like 24x / 16x), I have to use 8x on my 16x Yamaha and many claim that you shouldn't burn any faster than 4x.